Ukrainian borscht vegan style

This entry is part 3 of 3 in the series Soups

Ukrainian borscht is normally cooked with meat )pork or beef) and is eaten with sour cream of course.

I think that sometimes it comes out way too rich and fatty.

I love to lighten the food and avoid cholesterol and its derivatives by all means.

Vegan borscht is a great analogue of Ukrainian vegan borscht that I published some time ago on my blog.

This soup doesn’t include anything meaty or fried. It’s a great comfort recipe for every day.

Cooking time: 55 minutes 

Preparation time: 25 minutes

Serves: 6 people 

Ingredients:

Pinto beans – 1 cup

Cabbage shredded – 2  cups

Beet shredded – 1 pcs

Carrot shredded – 1 pcs

Potatoes peeled – 6 pcs

Tomato juice – 2 cups

Red bell pepper – 1 pcs

Onion – 1 pcs

Dill – 1/2 cup

Garlic – 2 cloves

Salt and pepper – per your taste

Preparation:

Pre-soak the pinto beans before going to work or going to bed. So that when you are ready to cook the they will be pre-soaked and ready for boiling. Set the pre-soaked beans to boil, pick  4 qt sauce pan for this soup . Meanwhile: peel the beets, potato and carrot. Clean the red bell pepper out of seeds.

Shred the beets and carrots and add it to the boiling beans, then add to the sauce pan the peeled potatoes cut in cubes.

Chop the onion and red bell pepper and add it to the boiling veggies. Pour 2-3 cups of tomato juice into the soup.  Season according to your taste. I normally add 2-3 teaspoons of salt and 1 teaspoon of pepper.

While the veggies are boiling shred the cabbage and add it to the saucepan. Stir the boiling soup well.

The soup should be cooking for 25-30 minutes by now.

Let it boil for more 20-25 minutes and when all the veggies ready, finely chop the garlic and dill.

When serving the soup sprinkle the garlic and dill  on top of the soup. It will be just delicious.

This soup is served with special biscuits , but ordinary buttermilk biscuits will also work fine.

I served it with Uzbek flatbread. It’s very delicious and you can find it in pretty much any Asian or Russian store.

You can sprinkle the flatbread with garlic and dill as well.

Serve the soup warm and enjoy the flavors!

I pictured this recipe on my handmade tablecloth. The embroidery is unique  and made by my Grandmother for my 30-th birthday. I just love the colors of it and it’s very traditional pattern for Ukraine. Hope you  love it same as I do and enjoy the vegan Ukrainian borscht!

Love,

Light cauliflower soup with chicken

This entry is part 5 of 5 in the series Soup

This soup is light  and is a great comfort food. I like to have this warm soup for dinner after a very busy day.The best thing is that you can prepare all the necessary veggies when you have time (or buy the ready mix) and just enjoy the soup in 20-40 minutes. You can also prepare the chicken broth a day (or an evening before). All in all it’s agreat comfort food for the whole family.

 

Serves: 4 people

Preparation time 20-30 minutes

Cooking time 20 minutes

Ready in 40-50 minutes

For the soup you will need:

Veggies:

1 finely chopped onion

1/2 big shredded carrot (or you can just slice it width-wise)

1 medium bell pepper (yellow or orange)

4-5 medium potatoes cut in cubes

1/2 of large cauliflower (flowers cut separately into a mid-sized chunks)

Poultry (not  a must , but I cooked it  as a non vegan soup. You can easily eliminate all animal based food if you’d like to).

2 chicken thighs ( skinless)

Herbs:

1/4 cup of dill

1/4 cup of chives

Salt

Pepper

Preparation:

Wash the chicken thighs,take off the skin and cut off the fat.

Set to boil in a 3-4 quart saucepan, add the salt and pepper (I add about 1-2 tablespoons of salt and 1/2 of black pepper).Boil for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile prepare the veggies: Peel the potatoes, onion and carrot,  wash carrot, potatoes, bell pepper and onion.

After the 20 minutes are up and you see that the chicken thighs are cooked, take them out of the saucepan and let them cool down on a plane. (So that you could cut then in cubes as well)

Cut the potatoes in cubes (mid-sized) and add to the saucepan. Shred the carrot and chop the pepper and onion.  Put everything  in the saucepan. At this time, turn the gas down to medium-low and continue simmering your soup.

Take the cauliflower, cut the flowers of , wash them and them cut the flowers in quarters or halves (depending on their size).  Set the cauliflower aside, you will throw them in 10 minutes before turning the gas off).

Now work with your cooked chiken- just cut off some meat from the chicken thighs, so that they wouldn’t be so huge and  impossible to serve in a plate.

After cooking the veggies for another 20 minutes, add the cauliflower and the chicken into the saucepan; wash and chop the hers.

Stir everything well , taste for salt and spices.

The soup will be ready in 10 minutes after you have added the cauluflower.

Serve warm!

Tuna soup with beans

Tuna soup with beans.

The idea of this soup belongs to my in-law, when she was was trying to fix  s soup fast. Originally it  was different, but I liked the idea, and in fact it’s a great anti-stress soup.  So i improved the soup a little and voila: the combination of creamy pinto beans and salty chunks of tuna works just fine.
It doesn’t require high qualifications either , just chop everything and mix in a saucepan ;)

Preparation time:  15 minutes.
Cooking time: 45 minutes
Ready in : 1 h
Ingredients:
4 qt. water
2 cups of pre-soaked beans(overnight)
1 medium carrot (grated)
3 big potatoes (peeled)
1 small bell pepper
2 small onions
2 tuna cans
2 eggs ( hard boiled and grated)
1 tablespoon of salt
Black pepper
1/2 cup of finely chopped dill
2 tablespoons of sour cream.
1 teaspoon of vegetable oil
 Preparation:
Pre-soak the pinto beans (better overnight).
Set the saucepan at the medium heat and boil the beans for20 minutes ( they should be cooked by this time, if pre soaked overnight)

Peel the potatoes, onions and carrot.  Wash and cut the potato in cubes, wash and grate the carrot, wash and cut in small cubes the bell pepper.  Wash and cut in cubes the onion( divide it in two halves) Put everything ( except for the onions, put ONLY half of the onion chopped ) in the saucepan with beans and simmer for the next 20-30 minutes.

Meanwhile hard boil the two eggs. When the eggs are ready let them stand in hot eater for 10 minutes,then drain  and let them cool down.
Shell the eggs and grate.
When the veggies are cooked add the tuna, mix everything very well, add 1 tablespoon of salt ( this is to my taste, taste maybe you will need only 1/2 of tablespoon or maybe you need more), add black pepper according to your taste.add the grated egg and mix everything very well. Turn the gas to low heat.
Take the other half of onion and prepare the sauce with sour cream (2 tablespoons) , onion ( the half that is left) and the dill finely chopped. Proceed in this manner: start frying the onion on medium heat, then add the sour cream and then finely chopped dill, stir everything and pour the sauce in your soup.
Simmer for the next 5 minutes and your soup is ready!
Serve warm.
Enjoy!

Simple country salad

This entry is part 2 of 4 in the series Go Vegan!

This salad is cooked in Ukrainian country very often. It is cheap, delicious and easy to cook. Great for an everyday meal. This salad is also cooked for Christmas eve,because according to Christian orthodox tradition, the table has to consist of 12 vegetarian dishes.  This dish was one of 12 for my Christmas Eve, of course.

Yield: 4 people.

Preparation time: 15 min

Cooking time: 30 min

For the salad you will need:

3 big potatoes ( boiled and sliced);

1 small white onion ( raw, peeled and sliced);

5-6 pickled cucumbers( sliced);

1 teaspoon of salt;

1 teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper;

2 tablespoons of sunflower oil;

Preparation:

Boil the potatoes. You can boil them overnight then drain and cook the salad next evening.

When you boiled the potatoes drain them and let then cool down, so that you coul peel them easily.P

Peel you potatoes and the slice them as shown in the picture.

Take the dills, and slice them. ***Note from Helen *** You can take the hamburger dills , but for me they are too sour, I prefer to buy Polish dills at the local vegetable store. You can stop by at Russian store and try to find nice looking pickles there:)

Peel and slice the onions.

Mix all the ingredients season with salt and pepper and add the sunflower oil. Mix everything very well.

You can decorate the dish with parsley or lemon basil.

The salad is goohe when it’s just cooked and the next day as well.

It’s so simple yet flavorful and delicious! I just love it. Hope you will too.

 

Catfish stuffed with crabmeat, cream cheese and Italian peppers.

This recipe is very delicious and is the invention to make an alternative to turkey or chicken for the holidays. Simple and fast to prepare, festive and  colorful , but mainly this dish is healthy and will vanish very fast from the plates.

For the recipe you can use whole catfish and catfish fillets. You can use any other fish like tilapia or flounder steaks, whole carp etc. This recipe is very low on cholesterol.

1 Catfish (4 lb.) cleaned, or catfish fillets (8)

½ pack of cream cheese

¼ of Italian pepper

¼ stick of sweet unsalted butter melted

½ onion chopped

1 tsp. cumin

2 tsp. black pepper

1 cup of crab meat (imitated or real crab meat)

½ cup of shrimps (optional)

3 tsp. salt

1 lemon

 

Step 1. Clean the catfish (if you are using whole fish). Wash in hot water and rub very well under the hot water to clean the skin better. (Or skin the fish, if you prefer)

Step 2. Prepare the stuffing:  finely chop the pepper and onion, add the cream cheese and mix very well. Cook the crab meat by boiling it in salt water for 3 minutes.  Cool the crab meat and shrimps, then drain and chop it. Add crab meat and shrimps to the rest of the stuffing, season and mix very well.

Step 3. Stuff the cleaned and seasoned fish. (Season the fish by rubbing into the skin 1 tsp. of cumin,1 tsp. pepper and 2 tsp. of salt). Sew the fish up and put on a greased baking dish.

Step 4.  Preheat the stove at 350F. Bake the fish for 25 min, pouring the melted butter on it after 10 min of baking and squeezing in half of the lemon onto it 20 minutes after the baking was started.

If you are using fish fillets just put the stuffing between the fillets and bake the fillets for 20 minutes pouring the melted butter and lemon juice 10 and 15 minutes after the baking started accordingly.

After the fish is ready let it sit in an oven fir the next 5 minutes. Put on a large plate, and take the threads before serving.

Top 5 holiday vegan dishes. Pick yours!

This entry is part 6 of 7 in the series Holidays

Christmas is when you spend a lot of time with your family, give a lot of presents and cook  a lot of food. Even if you have a vegan or vegetarian family member or friend there’s virtually million of dishes you can treat them with. I chose my 5 favorite Christmas vegan dishes for the holiday table.I y will have them on mine. If you have any other favorite dishes you want to share with me post the picture of the dish and recipe link below! Happy holidays!

Green beans with sesame seeds.

Simple, yet delicious, this dish is great for holiday table.Sesame seeds and olive oil give the dish rich taste and doesn’t matter if you are vegan or not, you will anyway enjoy it a lot!

Healthy and Easy Vegan beet salad with prunes.

Beets with prunes have sweet taste, if you add a little garlic the dish will be more  more salty and this contrast will be very appealing to your senses. In addition to this this dish possesses  many healthy benefits, so don’t leave it behind. Enjoy!

Read the recipe

 

Pickled eggplants with carrots, garlic and herbs

Goes well with mashed potatoes and with broccoli, with rice and beans. Great contrast dish, but takes time to prepare.

See the recipe

Delicious braised cabbage with raisins

Great as the main and side dish, sweet raisins and bell

pepper and salty cabbage go well together.

There won’t be too much of this dish it will vanish fast!

 

 

Read the recipe

Vegan spicy sautéed mushrooms in 10 minutes.

This is a very fast to cook dish chop mix and saute and you have a great dish in matter of minutes. It’s up to you to decide if you wanna make it spicy or not! I like it spice with saurkraut `and cranberries on the side. Read the recipe

Soup with meatballs, mushrooms,spaghetti and cheese.

This entry is part 4 of 5 in the series Soup

This is a great warm winter soup. It takes only 30 minutes to cook, but it vanishes even faster than it took you to cook

 

it.

Cooking time 30 minutes.

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Serves 4 people.

[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:5]

 

Top 3 Fall Soups

This entry is part 1 of 3 in the series Soups

 These three soups are the best comfort meal for the lunch in fall: it enegrizes, keeps you warm and boosts your taste buds. You can add lots of flavors to these soups by experimenting with herbs: basil, dill, parsley and others.

 

Vegetarian Pea Soup 

Vegetarian pea soup is good those days when you want a rich-creamy soup without any meat component in it. It’s a comfort food perfect right for the days when it’s chilly and drizzly outside. This recipe has simple ingredients and doesn’t require to be a skillful chef to prepare it.

All in all perfect autumn soup for the family. Read more

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pumpkin crème-soup with shrimp, cream cheese and basil.

It’s autumn and it means that it’s time for a great pumpkin soup with shrimp that I just LOVE cooking.

It doesn’t require a lot of effort but it comes out perfectly smooth, bringing in the autumn flavors and colors into your kitchen.

I tasted this soup long time ago in Europe, brought it into my kitchen and my family just loves it. Hope, you will too. Read more

 Zucchini crème-soup

This is a very simple crème soup. It takes 40 minutes to cook and your family will enjoy this meal. It’s a great summer or fall soup for your to enjoy! Simple and flavorful! It takes little effort to cook and it’s a really light  dish. It gives you energy and makes you feel good. Read more

Vegetarian Pea Soup

Vegetarian pea soup is good those days when you want a rich-creamy soup without any meat component in it. It’s a comfort food perfect right for the days when it’s chilly and drizzly outside. This recipe has simple ingredients and doesn’t require to be a skillful chef to prepare it.

All in all perfect autumn soup for the family. 

Cooking time: 1 h

Preparation time: 15 min

Inactive time: 30 min 

1 cup of peas

3-4 qt. of water

1 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of black fresh ground pepper

3 tablespoons of sour cream

1 tablespoon of cooking oil (vegetable better)

1 medium white onion

1 carrot

3 medium potatoes

1 red bell pepper

2 bay leaves (or 1 teaspoon of crushed bay leaves)

Pre-soak 1 cup of peas for 30 minutes. (Use hot water and twice bigger bowl, in order for you to keep the beans in the bowl not outside of it:-).

Peel and wash the veggies: onion, carrot, potatoes and pepper. Shred the carrot and finely chop the onion and pepper. Cut potato in medium sized pieces. Put the half of the chopped onion aside.

Set a 3 quart saucepan with water and add the veggies plus couple of bay leaves, add salt and black pepper.

Simmer for 10 minutes and then add the peas. Boil the soup for 30-40 minutes at the low heat.

Set a frying pan and add 1 tablespoon of cooking oil and the chopped onion. Fry on medium heat, until golden brown and then add 3 tablespoons of sour cream or cooking cream. Braise for 5 minutes and then pour the sauce into the soup and stir very well.

Simmer the soup for another 20 minutes or until the peas dissolve in the soup, truning it into the rich creme-soup.

Serve this soup warm, you may add some sour cream in each plate separately.

I fry the fine italian bread cut in medium squares with salt and pepperand add it to the soup when eating.

You can choose to do the same if you’d like.

 

Vegan spicy red cabbage

This entry is part 7 of 7 in the series Delicious fried veggies

I hope you love the colors of this dish: it’s so autumn and bright! My family members call this dish “weird braised cabbage”:-)

To me the red cabbage tastes absolutely different, than the ordinary green one. It’s more flavorful, tender…. mmm, it’s more autumn!

 

For this recipe you will need:

1 lb of red cabbage (shredded)

1 onion

1/2  red bell pepper (or yellow one for the color)

1 chili pepper (small)

2 tablespoons of vegetable oil

1 pinch of salt

Serves 4 people.

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 20 minutes

Shred the cabbage carefully, peel, wash and chop the onion, wash and chop the red bell pepper.

Chop the chili separately.(you will throw it in 3 minutes before serving).

Season the cabbage and squeeze it , so that it would be more juicy!

***Tip from Helen*** You can add 1/4 of shredded carrot if you would like to. I sometimes do.***

Start braising the cabbage with onions, then add peppers after 10 minutes of braising and 3 minutes before taking your cabbage off the stove throw in the chili.

*** Tip from Helen*** be careful with chili , wash carefully your hands and don’t touch your eyes when just worked with chili. Wash the knife and your cutting desk very well.

If you need during the cooking add some salt as well, I don’t as I don’t like too much salt in my food.